Stikine Middle School student takes second in national poetry contest

For an eighth grade student, Kayla Hay chooses her words very carefully.

"In Mr. Davis's class we're all assigned certain writing ..." she said, and paused, searching for a synonym to describe work in her favorite class.

"Assignments," she finished. "Is that how I should say that?"

Her penchant for just the right word recently won her second place among sixth through eighth grade students in the Carl Sandburg Student Poetry Contest put on the by the National Park Service. Unable to attend the award ceremony at the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock, N.C., she and her parents joined the ceremony via Skype and will receive a ribbon and a book in the mail.

"It feels good to win," Kayla said.

"It's exciting," she said. "It's fun to find out you've won a national contest."

Her reaction is understated for a reason. Hay has won numerous awards during her middle school years said Bob Davis – the Mr. Davis mentioned earlier.

"As a sixth grader, she (Kayla) was the state winner for letters about literature," he said. "Last year as a seventh grader, she took a third place national finish in Odyssey Con, a science fiction convention. She took a state first place for 'Stikine, My Home.' She got a national honorable mention ... with the Legacy Project Listening to a Life Contest."

Beyond Kayla's impressive placement, so many Wrangell students have performed well in state and national competitions that Davis struggled to recite them all over the phone.

"I don't want to leave anyone out," he said, naming several students who won awards last year.

Kayla originally wrote "What Lives At the Bottom of the Lake?" for a writing assignment for Davis's creative writing class. When the theme of the Park Service's competition was announced – the 2014 theme was movement – they chose a poem full of subtle movements expressed in verbs. The poem is roughly based on a night on the shores of Virginia Lake, Kayla said.

"Water clouds/like milk in coffee," the free-verse poem opens. "Leaves drift across the surface./My toes tap the water/come up pink."

It wasn't hard to take the writing assignment and play on dual meaning of the word 'movement,' Kayla said.

"I wrote about kind of an eerie foggy lake, sitting on the edge of the dock, like the planks shifting was part of the movement," she said.

She's been to Virginia Lake many times, making the setting familiar, Kayla said.

"It was pretty easy because Mr. Davis always says write about what you know, what you're more comfortable with," she said.

Student participation in the competitions isn't just a way for students to get recognition, Davis said. Competitions broaden their horizons and put a sometimes isolated Wrangell childhood in a broader context, Davis said.

"They have this idea that everything's better other places," he said. "It's better down south, it's more exciting, people get better educations. The kids here can compete. They can compete with anybody anywhere."

Competitions also encourage students to put extra effort into their writing, Davis said.

"It really improves their work ethic," he said. "I have kids that will re-write a piece 10, 12, 14 times before it's sent off. You try and do that for just a grade – hey, I'll give you an A if you write this 14 times – they'll look at you like you're crazy."